As others have mentioned, there have been several rockets of various sizes that have done vertical landing. What SpaceX solved was the requirements to do it ec

As others have mentioned, there have been several rockets of various sizes that have done vertical landing. What SpaceX solved was the requirements to do it economically while keeping the booster cheap enough to both initially build and then later refurbish for reflight. Even when not reused, a Falcon 9 is cheaper than the rockets of its generation. SpaceX also did self-landing tests with a grasshopper vehicle prior to working on F9 landings. On top of that, this kind of hobby rocketry is very divorced from 'real' rocketry in most ways. The closest analogue to this kind of propulsive landing approach would probably be how Soyuz uses some small rockets that fire right before the capsule touches down to soften the impact, or similarly with New Shepard but instead using cold gas thrusters. Doing it at this scale is really not that applicable to doing it well in terms of reusing a rocket stage at an orbital rocketry scale. Most of the challenges of landing that are in all the things a model rocket typically does not have. Not to discount the work though, the problem solving experience is certainly transferable.